Trump’s move to “reprogram” Pentagon money to build his promised wall along the U. S.-Mexico border has been a long-running dispute between the administration and Congress.
The GOP Senate’s new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill restores hundreds of millions of dollars in Pentagon spending that the Trump administration redirected to help pay for President Trump’s border wall.
Navy planes and ships and Air Force aircraft that the Trump administration canceled earlier this year so the money could go to pay for the wall have reappeared in the GOP bill that was introduced on Monday. The programs are part of $30 billion in defense spending in the GOP bill that Democrats are already objecting to. Republicans are defending the spending as important to protect jobs and help the Pentagon cope with impacts of coronavirus.
The Trump administration’s move to “reprogram” Pentagon money, to build Trump’s promised wall along the U. S.-Mexico border has been a long-running dispute between the administration and Congress. Lawmakers of both parties have objected, but the administration contends it can move the Pentagon’s money without congressional approval.
Now Senate Republicans, led by Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), have taken the opportunity presented by the coronavirus stimulus bill to restore spending on some of the programs they deemed most critical — although Democratic objections make it uncertain whether the spending will make it into any final bill.
Included in the GOP bill are some of the $3.8 billion in Pentagon programs canceled in a “reprogramming” notice the Trump administration released earlier this year.
